San Francisco 49ers running back Frank Gore and the rest of the team have, at least publicly, expressed no animosity toward the New Orleans Saints for Gregg Williams' infamous pregame speech before last year's NFC Divisional playoff game.Michael DeMocker/The Times-Picayune

Former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams matter of factly uttered his mantra for the defense on numerous occasions in a pregame speech leading up to the Saints' NFC divisional game against the San Francisco 49ers. The disturbing audio became public the same day Saints Coach Sean Payton, General Manager Mickey Loomis and linebackers coach Joe Vitt faced the NFL to appeal their suspensions connected to the bounty scandal.

Williams didn't appeal his indefinite suspension that day, but his speech put a voice to the scandal:

- "You don't (expletive) apologize for how we're going to play. You're here for a reason. You're here because we saw in you...and we hope we picked the right person that won't apologize for competing the way we have to compete. There may be better athletes, but not defensive football players that have to go into war and play we (expletive) play."

- "We've got to do everything in the world to make sure we kill Frank Gore's head. We want him running sideways. We want his head sideways."

- "Little 32 (Kendall Walker), we want to knock the (expletive) out of him. He has no idea what he's in for. When he's on the sidelines we've gotta turn that (expletive) over, turn their coaches over, turn the spectators over, go get that (expletive) on the sidelines."

- "We're gonna dominate the line of scrimmage and we're gonna kill the (expletive) head. Every single one of you, before you get off the pile, affect the head. Early, affect the head. Continue, touch and hit the head."

- "We need to find out in the first two series of the game, the little wide receiver, No. 10 (Kyle Williams), about his concussion. We need to (expletive) put a lick on him right now. He needs to decide. He needs to (expletive) decide. We need to decide whether (Michael) Crabtree want to be a fake (expletive) primadonna, or he wants to be a tough guy. We need to find it out. He becomes human when we (expletive) take out that outside ACL. We need to decide on how many times we can beat Frank Gore's head. We need to decide how many times we can bullrush and we can (expletive) put Vernon Davis' ankles over the pile."

- "Another thing we always say in this room is never apologize for the way we compete. If you're in this room, you understand that. We don't apologize."

Williams' speech caused a massive uproar throughout the league with some pundits calling for Williams to be permanently banned from the NFL. Even Saints quarterback Drew Brees said in April right after the Williams audio became public that the graphic nature of the speech made it "hard for everyone to hear."

At least publicly, the 49ers have downplayed Williams' speech since came to light.

"When you hear another team call your name, that means respect," Gore told the Sacramento Bee in June. "That's a lot of respect, and you're doing something right for your team. So it don't bother me at all."

The Niners' mind-set toward the Williams speech hasn't altered much as San Francisco (7-2-1) will play the Saints (5-5) on Sunday for the first time since the infamous filibuster.

"That has nothing to do with us," Davis said Wednesday. "We're not worried about that, because every game, everybody's out to get you. He was probably just getting them pumped up with things like that. That's what every team does. You never know. I'm sure there's a lot of teams saying differing things about different guys, depending on who the team is. That's just the nature of football. It's not a big deal. We don't worry about it."

Davis, who was mentioned by Williams, said he was neither surprised, nor shocked to hear what was being said about he and his teammates leading up to the divisional playoff game.

"It's just the nature of the game and that's what you have to expect," Davis said. "Coaches have to get their guys ready and that's what they were doing. They were getting their guys ready. We don't feel anything in our hearts against them for saying anything out of context or out of character. That's just how they motivate their guys. We respect that."

Niners Coach Jim Harbaugh said Wednesday he doesn't know if his players hold any animosity toward the Saints because of Williams. When asked what he thought of Williams' speech, Harbaugh didn't want to add any fuel to the fire.

"I have a take on it, but I don't think anybody needs another person to jump on the bandwagon with an opinion who doesn't have all the facts," Harbaugh said. "I'll just take myself out of discussion. (We) don't need one more person hopping on the bandwagon of opinion."

When asked if he would blame the Niners for holding ill will against the Saints for Williams' speech, Saints defensive end Will Smith said, "That would be a little overhyped. Everyone knows in football, coaches say a lot of things. It's just to try to motivate the guys. Who knows what was going on in their locker room? No one will ever know. Probably no one would ever tell. At the end of the day, it was a playoff game and the stakes were high. I'm sure they understood that."